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According to BoxOffice.com, 2009′s domestic cume has already topped 2008′s record haul of $9.626 billion from January 1 to December 31, 2008. More on Monday when actuals come in.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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You’re on to something here. Please run with it.
A perfect storm of 3 things;
1) The internet, and online gaming. 10 years ago, the internet and gaming took up about 15% of my “media time”. Now, the internet and gaming take up 85% of my media time.
2) 2 labor strikes. Whatever your politics, by striking, labor forced the studios to learn a lesson that they should have learned a long time ago, – spending a lot of money on developement is STUPID, and not cost effective. All those OWA’s were great and paid the bills for writers, but not a great ROI at all. Does anyone think that Transformers 2 was any better of a movie because it went through 6 re-writes? Really?
Now, it’s up to the producers to bring entire packages of directors, stars, and scripts to the studio – all on spec. So now, the studios only buy “movies” – not projects that require developement.
3) The economy – it shook a lot of money out of this party.
So there you have it! Merry Christmas Hollywood!
As you all probably know, the answer to Nikki’s question is that Hollywood (L.A.) has priced itself out of the film production market, while competing cities continue to grow their film production communities. As hard as that is to recognize and accept, it’s simple economics. Producers don’t care where they make their product – there’s no loyalty to California. With these huge profits they could afford to make their product here (Los Angeles), but how could “people” like Iger get their golden parachute payments if producers spread the wealth around home a little?
The real question is why the studios are so friggin’ cheap with writers and actors when profits are increasing every six months – and increasing at a fantastic rate. They’re crying poor while doing everything in their power to to hide the money they’re making. It’s greedy. And it’s shameful.
But nothing new to Hollywood.
SoCal is heading the direction of Detroit, and for similar reasons. Our industry is drying up and disappearing here because of competition elsewhere, and the only thing AMPTP executives are doing about it is lining their own pockets while they can. And the 2010 CA tax incentives (read: kickbacks) are too little, too late.
It’s like a bad reality show plot.
Honey, I immigrated to Canada when work started drying up in LA. There’s no work right now in Canada either.
The answer to your rhetorical question: More and more of that BO money is being divided up among fewer and fewer projects. Mega-conglomerates put more resources than ever into fewer projects than ever. Nobody’s figured out how to make any money at all in the low end and “mid-level” production isn’t happening because it’s just too expensive for indies to really raise money to make and market anything and the upside’s too small for the mega-conglomerates to bother.
So you have a handful of 2-300-million-dollar productions on one end of the spectrum, people hoping to ‘go viral’ on the other, and the middle filled up with people spending the better part of a decade trying to get cast, director and enough funding from Singapore or India or the Romanian government together to start rolling cameras.
BO numbers could quadruple next year but that wouldn’t indicate anything about numbers of people working or long term health of the industry–both of which are on a very sad trajectory.
Good year for distributors! Less marketing expenses and less losses per project!
Because the number of wide-releases produced AND distributed in North America this year, is off by at least 15 percent (from last year and the year before).
The easy money dried up…and productions were reduced this year by at least 25%…because of the backlog of projects (at least 10% of the annual product) still waiting to be released from the previous “good” years.
The money was good…but most of the product sucked.
That happens when money is too easy to come by. Too many green-lighting decisions made without enough knowledge or profitability conscientiousness.
And now that the easy money is gone…so are the jobs…and we are left with very slim quality heading into the Academy Awards.
So expect the Academy TV viewership to reach an new low too.
But cheer up! We will be out of product soon and the work will pick up. Just about the time its time to go on strike again. Good leverage for the unions…but tough on the little guys.
What little guys?
It’s all about the imperialist Big Six cartel now.
Pray that Icahn buys up MGM and Lions Gate … its your only hope Luke!
I don’t think we’ll be going on strike in 2011. No one has the stomach for it. However, I do think the negotiating will come earlier and be savvier on the unions’ side. Also, SAG and AFTRA will have merged before then — they have to, and they know it — which will add a lot of power to actors. And, there will be a lot more leverage for the unions re: Internet, which the AMPTP will not be able to deny anymore.
No fear everyone. We’re just in tough times. If you stay true to building your craft, on the other side of all of this you’ll be okay.
Sounds like the official line of the party in charge at SAG.
Is it because Hollywood has out sourced it’s ass to India, every Baltic Country, and every other state that offers tax incentives? Shame on The State of California and Los Angeles for not competing.
I understand your point about the outsourcing. Yes, CA is late to the party of tax incentives, but I think it’s encouraging to hear about other states beginning to rethink their incentive programs.
NY’s program barrelled through their budgeted incentive dollars already and is losing productions because the money well is now dry. Do you think the NY-based tv show “Fringe,” after taking NY’s incentive money, stayed in NY after those funds were gone? Nope, they are now in Vancouver this season. How loyal of them! I think it’s Michigan (I’m not 100% percent sure whether it’s MI or another state) that is beginning sour their thinking on their return on investment with the tax incentives.
And for good reason: Financially, these tax incentives are nothing more than State-sanctioned welfare for an industry that doesn’t need it and that has ZERO loyalty to that state once the money is gone. Whether it’s 10%, 15%, or 25% reimbursement for filming in their respective states, that money doesn’t necessarily go back to the studios or that’s states’ local economy. It usually goes back to the producers pockets only.
What these states are beginning to find out is that a lot of Hollywood productions bring a significant portion of their key crews from LA. Because of that and other factors, they are realizing that they are not seeing the financial benefits to their economies that they thought they would. And those tax incentives are paid for by the state’s taxpayers and therefore is a drain on their state budgets.
I hope this trend continues so that states will discontinue these welfare incentives, one by one, and the producers will be forced to be fairer and return production to its home in CA.
I’m just sayin…..
We intend to change that Nicky.
See the group on Facebook.
ITS TIME TO SHOOT MOVIES AND TV IN CALIFORNIA AGAIN!
Ed Gutentag (Los Angeles, CA) (creator)
I like to shoot pictures and movies in the warmth of Cali.
To the editor:
I have concerns about your concerns. As an advocate of actor’s rights, specifically as a member of the Screen Actors Guild (as well as AFTRA, the DGA and Actors Equity), I wonder if you are understanding of the implications of the “subscription-based model” for the actual makers of the content: the actors. Yes, “among others,” but the people you see when you turn on the TV or watch a movie or fire up your computer and somehow expect to watch for free? Are actors not getting paid these days. The latest TV/Theatrical contract approved by the “moderate” faction of SAG, now in power, pays actors, not a “piece of the pie” as the “hard-liner” (me) faction of the union wanted, and was willing to strike over (AKA, a percentage of all gross income, hopefully across all platforms: TV, movies, cable, internet-new media, commercials, voice-overs, etc.), instead, the moderates agreed to a deal so ridiculously low, I recently received a residual check for .01 cents. This is now widespread. A union sending members checks in the mail, costing them a first class stamp, for .01 cents? Is a union run by dumb people. Period.
This “file swapping” you bemoan the loss of, for consumer “choice?” – has another word. Theft. You “swap” a movie, TV show, whatever, with someone you know, or download one for yourself, you are doing it through a file-swapping “bit-torrent” site, like Pirate-Bay, who’s two founders have recently been been convicted in Sweden, and re-convicted after appeal, are, essentially, middlemen in a multibillion dollar series of thefts over the recent years, by giving away content for free, by providing the central servers via which the “consumer” you are worried about can download someone else’s file of content, that, chances are, they didn’t pay for either. The actor who makes a middle-class living, roughly 95% of the Screen Actors Guild, is robbed of residual payments in the case of such theft, as is every other contributor to the content due residuals: writers, directors, etc.
Hulu is the principal player in the “it’s free!” new world these kids are growing up in, and it’s the equivalent of raising an entire generation of kids whose parents told them, “it’s perfectly fine to go to CVS and steal some candy.” No, it’s not. And the fact the losses and theft occur on-line makes it, of course, no different.
What the middle-class SAG actor needs to survive, and remain in the business, is for papers like the NY Times to stop printing op-ed pieces that rationalize content theft on the internet. Then we need a viable “monetization”of the internet. Like a subscription-based system, where owners of content are favored over consumers who expect free choice. Then, we need a new contract that gives actors a “piece of the pie,” a percentage of producer’s gross income across all platforms. Huge pie? X percent. Smaller pie, due to recession or normal ups and downs of the business? Same X percent. Can there be anything more fair than that? Common sense right? An “upgrade in actor’s compensation for the 21st century” I’d call it. The producers and their negotiation consortium, the AMPTP? They call it “a non-starter.” Why? They don’t really like paying actors. They tolerate huge salaries of stars as the cost of doing business, but, the vast majority of the people you see in movies, on TV, on union content you watch on-line, are middle-class SAG actors.That’s where the producers have decided to shed huge financial liability, and, until the “hardliners” get back in power – the actual “unionists” of the union, who want to stop this theft, monetize the internet, then threaten to strike, or strike to get a percentage deal (because we understand the AMPTP will never, based on precedent and common sense, give back what the moderates just gave away in the last contract), are a dying breed. And your editorial waves us good-bye.
Matt Mulhern
SAG, AFTRA, DGA, AEA
@ Matt Mulhern: Please explain the philosophical difference between file sharing movies and the old school swapping video tapes & copying that people used to do? Both are a small portion of the overall of the viewing public. They take a lot of work in terms of waiting for downloads, having the right codecs, and anti-virus software to prevent a computer from being a doorstop. The general public just want to click a button and get entertained because they are lazy. There are no hard and fast numbers for either type of “theft”, mind you that the home taping/swapping was “wink & nod” legalized with the Betamax case opening the door for today’s paradigm.
Also, there were many mom & pop video rental places that had videos that looked like they were duped in the NY area. Are you telling me that writers, directors, & actors received residuals from those grey market rentals?
And last I heard, Hulu was an ad revenue supported model, so it is not technically free. The internet is metized, just not to the degree that you and others would like.
Wake up and smell the coffee of the new paradigm & stop throwing around straw men.
I do get your points and appreciate how well laid out there are.
However, I don’t agree with your view about how SAG’s “moderate” faction rolled over the “hardliners” and gave the AMPTP just what they wanted.
I think it’s the moderates who saved SAG from rendering itself obsolete, at least in Primetime TV. No one thinks the current theatrical contract is a great contract.
I feel the SAG hardliners, lead by Alan Rosenberg, simply blew it! Why do I feel this way?
He allegedy was in lock-step with the WGA leading up to their strike. Coventional wisdom (and networks planned for this scenario by requesting more scripts from showrunners, past the current season and 4-5 ep’s scripts into the next season) was that the WGA was going to wait until SAG/AFTRA’s contract expired next June, in order to strike along-side the actors, if need be.
However, that October, the WGA decided not to wait and went on strike November 1. The leverage of the writers/actors striking together was gone, however the WGA striking in the middle of the season gave them some leverage.
A big boon to the Networks/Producers was that during the WGA strike, just enough time lapsed (60 or 90 days,I forget which) that many writers/actors with production deals and/or contracts could be terminated due to force majeure clauses. This allowed the networks/producers to exit production deals with talent before those deals were set to expire. This saved the networks/producers a shiite-load of moola. Nice move, WGA.
Then after the WGA strike ended, negotiatons with SAG/AFTRA basically went nowhere. AMPTP dragged its heels because they could. Then SAG’s relationship with AFTRA soured so much so that AFTRA terminated their joint negotiation agreement and negotiated with AMPTP on their own.
SAG leaderships’ arrogance didn’t stop there. With AFTRA now negotiating on their own, they would most likely easily settle on a deal just to compete with SAG for production contracts. Anyone with common sense saw the writing on the wall. Not Rosenberg.
Well, AFTRA, basically in the pocket of AMPTP, struck a deal with the producers that was a shiite deal for actors.
Rosenberg and Co., never seemed to take any opportunity to mend their relationship with their sister union. They allowed the split between the two unions to happen. Then when, AFTRA strikes a deal, SAG spent several hundred dollars on a campaign to persuade the 30 or 40 thousand AFTRA members who are also SAG members to vote NO on the contract ratification voting. That tactic was a collossal failure.
AFTRA members overwhelmingly ratified the contract, much to Rosenberg’s administration’s chagrin and embarrasment.
That STILL didn’t deter SAG’s leadership from fighting on. Despite the reality of SAG’s total lack of leverage, talk of striking was Rosenberg’s mantra.
That fall a group of actors, led by Amy Brenneman, weary of Rosenberg’s hardline stance, gained enough seats on the national board to obtain a slim majority.
Contract talks with federal mediator failed and SAG announces it’s seeking a strike authorization.
Rosenberg led a 28-hour filibuster at an emergency SAG board meeting to block the moderates’ effort to fire Allen and replace the guild’s negotiating committee. Two weeks later, the moderates oust Allen through a maneuver known as “written assent.”
A new round of negotiations collapses over the issue of the contract’s expiration date. Considering that the new leadershp at SAG basically agreed to take the same deal as AFTRA/WGA/DGA, this was an arrogant move on the AMPTP’s part. Thus proving what all SAG members know, the AMPTP wanted to twist the screws and see if it could make the new leadership bend.
Back-channel talks with execs and SAG toppers lead to a tentative deal, which includes SAG’s contract expiring in synch with AFTRA/DGA/WGA.
Even though there was not an official strike, there was a huge work stoppage of green-lit projects simply because no film studios wanted to begin filming a project with the ever-present thread of an actors’ strike looming.
Getting back to my point that SAG, through its’ tactics mentioned above,almost rendered itself obsolete in Primetime TV. Many SAG shows were looking to convert to HD video in case of a strike. That way, because of the video-tape medium, they simply could legally switch to AFTRA and not impact production.
Oddly enough, even though a contract was agreed upon, several primetime shows, switched to HD video anyway, due to cheaper costs when compared to developing film. Those shows have remained SAG shows.
However, the big fallout from this contract fiasco is that during pilot season, AFTRA covered a vast majority (70 or 80 %, I think) of the new shows. AFTRA also now covers most of the basic cable primetime dramas.
What I don’t like about AFTRA, is that in their efforts to stay relevant and growing, they undermine SAG contracted rates on a show by show basis just to get the business. So…what is the point of AFTRA agreeing to a contract with the AMPTP? They regularly turn around and undercut even their own contract rates to make themselves more attractive to producers.
I don’t understand why more big-name actor’s don’t hold AFTRA accountable for these tactics. After all, how are their tactics helping actors in general?
I think both actors’ unions should wake the hell up and understand that what happened this go-around can and will happen again, if they let it. The day for two actors’ unions has passed. There is no need to have two entities that can be played off each other.
There is only one answer: Merge.
Signed-
Respectfullydisagreeing
Ummm… I wonder… Could it be holier-than-thou unions???
Um, No.
The unions here are toothless and roll over on any negotiation.
Quit the Republican talking point and get informed.
The studios and their corporations do NOT have to worry about the unions.
good question. someone is making money and it’s not the working writers and directors who are constantly being told they have to put out for less, or even free, to keep working in this town.
Q: So why is most of Hollywood out of work?
A: Because all of Hollywood’s jobs are now in Canada and the other 49 states.
The corporations who run and own it think by buying their way in Hollywood that they are somehow insiders, creatives…but they are NOT and it shows in their widgets (just using corporate speak mr. immelt) i.e. movies and the public knows what’s good and knows that what these corps make is crap. Unfortunately, the next gen of moviegoers have now been fed on this tripe and like lemmings off a cliff, they go to these widgets and think WOW THIS IS DERN GOOD..LET’S GO TO WALMART AND BUY THE VIDEO GAME….DA.
Nope. Everyone I work with in Canada has been unemployed for most of 2009. The work just vanished. It’s not just LA, or unions.
Because of your stupid Strike
Because there is a conservative attitude to new talent or different forms of entertainment despite changing tastes, so new opportunities are too rare for those in need of jobs
-how many people aren’t working because of Leno’s primetime spot takeover alone?
Because DBO only represents about 1/3 of a film’s revenue, and the rest of those streams are tanking and/or becoming less reliable???
While I think Ed and Matt make the best comments here (most of the comments are accurate, methinks) dare I say all the problems with Hollywood are a direct result of something much more powerful and abstract . . .
CAPITALISM
It’s a cancerous organism that NEEDS to grow 15% each quarter, or whatever the actuals the companies promise the shareholders.
The Writer’s strike was an attempt to knock back the beast a little. The effect, however, was equivalent to attempting to fight a lion using a straw and some spit balls.
It’s not one particular pattern (conglomerates eating up the studios) or a union striking or DVD sales falling or Jack Nicholson farting at a Laker game, it’s a stew of particles that comprise one colossal, bubbling, cancerous mass: the current business model in America; a business built solely off of consumption.
The ultimate question, therefore, lies with the current administration: Will Obama change capitalism? CAN he change it?
Yea, that sounds great. Let’s become socialist to save the California film industry. “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Better yet, how about you move to Venezuela instead…
Indie,
I love it. It seems every time a citizen criticizes the way things are going in this country, they are labeled UN-PATRIOTIC by some “right-thinking” individual and told they should pack up and leave the US. WHAT IF, instead, they STAYED and tried to make this GREAT COUNTRY an even BETTER ONE by asking probing questions instead of merely falling into lock-step with the Radical Right?
Example of the kind of hypocritical stuff that kills me: Ronald Reagan, the Patron Saint of the Republican Party, was very vocal
in his opposition to government assistance. Yet his father supported young Ronnie & the family with the aid from FDR’s NRA program. In fact, as you may recall, Reagan himself was once a staunch Democrat and Union president until Nancy (coming from a loyal Republican family) convinced him to switch sides. You may call that “seeing-the-light.” I call it “being-a-tool.”
But more to the point about Hollywood jobs. Everyone who has targeted the congloms being the main culprit in our national predicament is correct. Is it really necessary for only 1% of our citizens (top CEO’s, bank officers, congloms owners, etc) owning 60-70% of the national wealth – just because they CAN? Couldn’t people at the top take less? And nowhere is this greed more egregious than here in VIACOMCASTFOXCORPGEDISNEYLAND. Y’know, eventually there won’t be enough little people with the $ to afford the things these big fat cats produce. It behooves the rich to put MORE people to work, not less. And at FAIR LIVING WAGES. Then, perhaps America can once again enjoy the prosperity of the boom years when unemployment was below 4%.
And if you don’t like what I ‘m saying, why don’t you leave?
Dude. Why don’t you move to a commune and live off the land – grow some rhubarb and broccoli stew and fart your way into oblivion with Obama. Make your own movie about it, then get Obama to take your profits to make our country “a better place”-that would be heaven – don’t you think? Get as much money from Obama’s monopoly money and the rich he’s stealing from — and then you’ll be able to fund your play one of those shithole theaters on Santa Monica Blvd HOPING that someone DISCOVERS YOU!! You’ll make 10 bucks a night or less depending on who shows up (no one BTW). Then you can go back to your commune and make more farting noises like your post about Capitalism being simply evil.
You have a right to your opinion because you live in the greatest country in the world. So do I.
Your wrong. It has to do with liberal followers who wanted everyone to give them something for nothing and give them too much. This type of thinking destroyed Hollywood. Capitalism is what Hollywood has ALWAYS thrived on. But when dolts started asking for too much (CA government the last admin and current admin and the unions), then the studios decided to cut their losses here and go where they were welcomed to shoot movies. Sure they want to make a profit – like they always have, but so do the actors, writers, below the line professionals and all the supporting businesses. Just at a rate commensurate with the economy of the US, not the insane economy of California–which is now bankrupt thanks to their corruption and stupidity (which BTW is Socialist at best). If the CA government and Fed gov’t. weren’t so stupid, then we could have kept production here and all of us would still be working — Capitalism at its best. But those in government and those on the far left here are so stupid, they do not understand the simple process of economics. The problem is NOT Capitalism -it’s you wanting everyone to help you out and you think Obama is GOD.
You know what this admin has done so far for us here in CA? Taken 10% more out of our paychecks, stolen from the rich, made play money, made us beholden to China, forced production out of here and into tax incentive states where they welcome them – great. But hey – there’s less traffic in Hollywood now. That’s good, right?
Try being a leader and try not depending on the guy in the Whitehouse to make everything better for you. Someday you’ll get this perspective. In the meantime, don’t go spending that stipend from your equity waiver theater in one place. Just give it away, then you can write it off on your taxes as a business seeking expense. Should make a huge dent in what you get in your IOU return.
I just want to say how ridiculous and unproductive it is for the left and the right to go at each other in this thread like spoiled brats.
The problem is not that there are too much socialist policies in CA govt. The problem is also not there is rampant capitalism in CA business. Because either extreme is detrimental to a healthy society.
Blaming Obama for our current ills in America is the height of ignorance. For example your paragraph:
“You know what this admin has done so far for us here in CA? Taken 10% more out of our paychecks, stolen from the rich, made play money, made us beholden to China, forced production out of here and into tax incentive states where they welcome them – great. But hey – there’s less traffic in Hollywood now. That’s good, right?”
So you assert that in less than one year, this administration has done all of that? Really? Please explain how the rich were stolen from? please explain why the rich producers are going to tax incentive states to get state-sponsored welfare rebates? We’ve BEEN beholden to China for WAAAAY more than the past year. Check your facts and then place the blame fairly with both parties.
And you also say:
“If the CA government and Fed gov’t. weren’t so stupid, then we could have kept production here and all of us would still be working — Capitalism at its best. ”
First of all, the Fed doesn’t necessary care where production goes, because they still get their cut. Regarding CA: well, I can’t offer you much of an explanation there. However, to state that Capitalism at it’s best is when CA also joins the state-sponsored welfare for the rich producers is a strange-bedfellow of economic ideas, isn’t it?
Just like you ridicule the dude advocating socialism and your alleging that his belief that one man, Obama, can solve all his problems. The same things applies to you, only in reverse. One man, Obama, is not the reason for all that you perceive is wrong with CA and the industry in general.
Capitalism has been the driving force of our economy for as long as there has been the USA and it’s why this nation has been so successful. However, the extreme in capitalism has had it’s share of casualties and failures: Bernie Madoff, Kenneth Lay, Dick Cheney, outsourcing US jobs, NAFTA (Ross Perot was right), the greed and lack of conscience by those in positions of power during the recent collaspe of the real estate/financial markets worldwide to name a few.
The answer to all of that is NOT socialism. The answer is the balance between capitalism and social responsibility. One without the other is a recipe for disaster.
Regarding falling DVD Sales:
I went to Target 2x recently and there are DVDs on sale for $2, $4, and $6. These titles are not from 1970something and before.
When DVD’s first came out, their price range was from $20 – $40 per title.
I think a fair price range is $10-$20 per title.
I think the studios are deeply discounting these titles cuz they are pushing the $30ish Blu Ray DVD titles. I think that’s a mistake.
How smart is it to get the public used to buying dvds for 2, 4 or 6 bucks?
Many video releases now are in tandem: DVD, Blu-ray, and a special feature or ROM disc at an average SRP of $30-$40. As a consumer, I say that’s a much better value than a single-copy DVD (that my child will eventually scratch up and render useless) for $20. So, royalty-dependent contributors are actually getting twice their bang for my buck had I bought the $20 DVD instead of the $40 DVD/Blu-ray combo package.
And secondly, if I pick up a DVD from the “dollar bin” and the film’s good, then you can bet your sweet bippy I’ll fork out the extra to go buy it on Blu-ray and watch it in HD.
That said, “getting the public used to buying dvds” for $2-6 is no different from the previous transition to DVD from VHS. Blu-ray is just another vehicle for distribution- and a good one at that. Film production costs are somewhat greater in order to create and release a finished product in HD, 3D, or with additional disc features that sway consumers to own a copy. In my household, these features are worth the extra expense and our movie-buying budget has gone from $150/month to $350/month over PY, which is a pretty good increase in the royalty fund amidst an otherwise shitty economic year.
Five years from now we’ll be buying Blu-ray discs for $6 because that medium will be obsolescent as well. Did I mention that I’m also among the a-holes who spent $1200 on a VHS player when they first came on the market? Such is the nature of the beast, my friend.
This has been the worst year of my career. For the past few years I was able to pull 6 figures annually as a writer after a big spec sale not too long ago. This year has been a complete loss.
Everyone wants everything done on spec. Assignments that actually pay are drying up and only there for the A listers or the latest flavor of the minute.
My agent tells me to write specs and then in the next breath tells me specs aren’t selling.
The studio’s want me to come in and give takes on ridiculous things like movies based on toys from the 70′s. When I spent a few weeks working something up for them I was told “it’s a long shot we even make this project”…
Everyone seems gun-shy. The movies I have set up at studios, some that have A list talent attached, are stalled with no sign of progress.
This is a rough patch and I know I’m not alone. I was fortunate enough to be in a position to work for free this past year. However, I have to start earning again soon or it’s time to polish up the resume and make writing my part time job again.
The sad thing is I take meetings and have conference calls all the time. Producers and studio execs want to work with me. They just don’t want to pay me.
This is more blood curdling than the most vile scene in any “Saw” flick.
Your experience is the exact same as my husband’s — a spec sale led to ten years of consistent work in film and TV (with some produced credits) only to see it end around the time of the strike. Of course, we never imagined the dry spell would go on for years; but it did. During that time he wrote a spec (everyone loved it/nobody bought it), and had a lot of meetings/pitches that went nowhere. Now we’ve used up our WGA points and lost our benefits. We are making plans to leave town. Please don’t misinterpret this post as a whine. It’s just a statement of fact and one small example of what is happening in many households all over Los Angeles that depend on the entertainment industry for economic survival. There are a lot of “working class writers” and their families who are struggling, and unfortunately none of us are optimistic that the landscape will improve, especially in TV where they’ve eliminated many mid-level writing jobs. Eventually, all that will be left are A-listers, hacks and newbies. (OK, this last part sounds a little whiney.)
unfortunately you’re not alone. I wonder about all of these people posting on here acting like the hard working people of hollywood have this coming for simply wanting to be paid fairly for years of hard work and dedication to the craft. hopefully your husband can continue to write regardless of where you move to and maybe there are better days ahead for everyone.
Ummmmm…. Are you me?
Good God, Nikki, are you really that stupid or do you just think your readers are morons?
First, revenues are up, but that has jackshit to do with profit. The cost to make movies has skyrocketed, effectively neutralizing the meaningless increased revenue you mention. There isn’t any more profit; no profit, no additional productions. No new productions, no additional jobs.
Secondly, duh. Unions and taxation have priced the jobs away. It costs too much to film in California, and there’s nothing magical about Hollywood. There’s no logical reason to film in a location when you can do it for half the cost somewhere else.
Hey Rocco-
Are you really that stupid?
Only an A-hole calls Nikki stupid for posing a rhetorical question on her own page-
Are you that stupid that you couldn’t figure that out?
Corporations make money with less employees. Recessions are a great excuse for Corporate CEOs to save money by cutting back staff and sing with glee as they distribute the profits among themselves and the shareholders. The shareholders are the rich as are the CEOS. Because the working man and woman can barely afford to survive let alone buy stocks and invest.
Unions came to be to give the exploited working man and working woman a voice that could be heard. Solidarity evened the playing field between the mega rich and the working class because en masse the working class had a voice. Alone the working man has nothing but the ability to say thank you when your employer throws you crumbs.
Anyone Union member, no matter which Union, who whines about IATSE or the WRITER’S GUILD or SCREEN ACTORS GUILD or Director’s Guild as “the problem” is poking a hole in their own boat. That also goes for non-union members who work for a living. Since we’re all in the same boat– all of us who work– as one person and then a group blames SAG or DGA or IATSE or WGA all you accomplish is putting another hole in our boat– your own boat.
Q: You want a chance to keep your house? A: Solidarity.
Q: You want to live like a serf? A: Keep going about it they way you have been. It’s working great.
With a united front against greedy corporations the unions and the working men and women can survive. Without solidarity to all brother and sister unions you’re working PR for the CEO and you’re doing it for free.
Unite or Perish. It’s on you.
economics 101- economies of scale
Take Inglorious Bestards as an example: The entire film was shot on soundstages and some exteriors. So the flic could have been easily shot in L.A. BUT Producers went to Berlin to shoot it. Why? Not because of the three to four EXT. Shots. They went there, `cause German DFF paid some 10 Million Dollars in subsidy. Simple as that. (and a hole less union restrictions, and nice places to hang out after work). – Thank you L.A., and anytime again….
All these people who think the problem is WHERE movies are being shot are not keeping tabs on the more important question of HOW MANY movies are being shot. The number of individual projects that actually pay people money is dropping. To read the posts here, you’d think the same number of movies are being made as were a 10 or 20 years ago, only they’re being made somewhere else.
But that is wishful thinking. (“Maybe,” you hope against hope, “if they’re still making anything like the same number of movies they did in the ‘good old days,’ somewhere else, I can complain about taxes and unions long enough to make that plethora of shows come back to SOCAL.”)
But the number of movies and TV shows is dropping, not merely moving.
Competition for eyeballs, piracy, the success of reality TV and an economic model that moves to investing in fewer theme park style movies rather than more of what we used to think of as movies–all of it is reducing the number of productions and paying jobs and THERE IS NO REASON TO BELIEVE THEY WILL EVER COME BACK IN THE FORM WE’VE KNOWN THEM.
People should be using their efforts trying to figure out what the next model will be and how to fit in and make some money than pointing fingers at this union or that political party.
The changes that are happening are so much bigger.
Why?
1. No contacts.
2. No talent.
Hey d-bag…. This is the same tripe that’s been passed around places like the Sky Bar, Dana Tana’s and Spago for years/decades. Are you blind to the changes that the industry is undergoing? How deep is your head up some Exec’s ass?
The truth is that #1 (“contacts”) seems to be all that matters out here. Talent is almost irrelevant without #1 and the assholes with #1 generally have no clue what #2 is… that’s the truth. Yeah, yeah… I’m just bitter no-talent guy, but take a gander at the the stellar material coming out this year. In film does 2009 match 1939? Can it match 1989 in TV or film? How about 99? 03? Don’t think so… How about we make Talent #1 and then the people with contacts can go f themselves and “quality” can once aghain become a word that can be used again. “How about a Mr. Potato Head movie or TV show? That was a big seller in the 70s?”
Go For It…yeah, with your left hand!
I am pleased to see that most of the commentators have it right. Only a minor few took offense at the answer … “unions” which is a very different audience than we normally have.
But I can say the same thing with less potential arguments. There is no economics textbook, teacher, or scholar who thinks minimum wage is a good idea. What it does is remove the bottom rung from the ladder. You have to pay more than the market will bear, and that forced expediture has to passed on, more or less, dollar for dollar, in your output price. That higher price then eats up more of the household income, so the minimum wage differential is eaten up anyway. All it did was make the costs higher for everyone.
Now that we have discussed a non-controversial topic, please undertand that “scale” is the same as minimum wage.
But its worse. The post-60′s must be avoided at all costs. All you gotta do is NOT hire 2 people from California, shoot outside of the 13 western, and save yourself A LOT of money. That is not hard math to do at all … just don’t hire here. And, funny thing, this is what the union set up!!!!
The point remains … if it is cheaper to fly every man, woman, and child to a foreign state or foreign country, than to shoot right here in L.A., there must be some very high L.A. costs … and those costs are not free market – they are union. [Note: Foreign tax credits are not enough to offset, it is high unions, not the tax rebates]
Matt Mulhern — There is nothing wrong with Hulu. In fact, it’s brilliant. It allows studios to show long-dead TV shows with followings (but not enough to pay for DVDs) with ads.
Hulu is not “free.” It’s “free as in broadcast TV” i.e. ad-supported. I like that model. Most of the shows are worth seeing an ad (spending about 3 minutes watching ads) but not paying for on DVD or download. Sure I like to watch Ed O’Neil in “LA Dragnet” and I figure he and Ethan Embry ought to get a fair share of the ad revenue, but it won’t be much because not many will watch it. I won’t pay for it because it’s not worth my money.
Regardless, Hulu is a huge piracy fighter. The means to get more money out of long-dead projects (which are still entertaining) by making it easy and free to view content is key. You don’t fight piracy by moralizing or suing your customers, but by providing a cheap and easy way to view content. Ask the music industry or the South Park guys. Southparkstudios.com makes it so easy to view South Park that it simply destroys piracy and nets the guys a bit of extra (not much) cash.
Which is the heart of Hollywood’s problem. A FEW films are worth paying for, the rest are at BEST a $1 rental at Redbox. If that. Really, who has passion for “27 Dresses” or “Funny People” or “Land of the Lost?” If they are on TBS or something I might watch it if I have nothing better to do. But its not Batman Begins or Iron Man or 300. Movies that are fun and WORTH PAYING FOR.
Because most of Hollywood’s writers/producers are so decadent and socially removed from the Average Guy that they wouldn’t even have a clue emotionally or socially as to what makes a compelling story. “Brothers?” Crikey that’s right out of Dogme 95 shinola — wretched depressing cliched junk thats a cross between the Lifetime movie of the week and Eurotrash posing.
I honestly don’t think there’s been a time when actors as a whole have been so skilled and often (the workaday ones) so damn likeable. But the writing and producing have been simply awful. You’d have to pay me to watch “the Awful Truth” for instance.
What I HOPE happens is someone opens up a web-only center for serial and film projects, done cheap but good (think: District 9) with new writers and producers hungry for mass audience creating something other than the decadent Hollywood cliches. Streaming Free (with ads) or modestly priced downloads. There’s no reason you have to watch a film or serial at a theater or TV set.
A few things:
As for why Tarantino shot Basterds in Germany, two words: Wheat Beer.
ClearingStuffUp – Prodco’s don’t fly whole crews to the location. They fly key personnel. Most states or nations that offer tax breaks have local hire and other thresholds to meet. I’m in Auckland. America’s Next Top Model flew in here this past week to do some shooting, and the news here treated local hires as a significant issue. I’m sure the same is true elsewhere.
Whiskey made the points I wanted to make about Hulu. It’s a good business model. Oh, and you can’t fast-forward through the ads.
As for file-sharing, multiple studies have shown the people who illegally download the most music also BUY the most music. Is the same true with movies & TV shows yet? Dunno, haven’t seen the studies. Hollywood’s trying to stay ahead of this curve with 3D. A lot of eggs are in JC’s basket on this one.
A friend of mine found out a movie he produced was being widely Torrented, and put up a PayPal button on the film’s official website encouraging folks who liked the movie they Torrented to kick in a couple of bucks. More than a few people did. I’m not suggesting this as a business model, but they did manage to get some lemonade from those lemons.
Which brings me to my next point. Studies have shown that people do want to pay for content so long as the price & delivery system are reasonable & convenient. What we don’t want – and what the industry shouldn’t count on doing any more – is reselling the same content over and over again in different formats and essentially printing money. I’m looking at you, Disney, with your classic animated movies.
A lot of people seem to like the subscription model. HBO and Netflix are, I think, paving the way, and the studios see this. Otherwise, why roll out Epix! in this economy???
Let’s also bear in mind that the studios are mostly owned by conglomerates whose other interests are faring worse than entertainment, and they’re squeezing every dollar they can – by cutting staff, cutting budgets, cutting salaries, playing Canada off against Louisiana against Hungary for the best breaks….